"paul rudd is a super charming, successful, business man dating a beautiful women and livin' the life! that is... until one day he crosses paths with the zany/offensive/needy actor x ( insert jason seagal, seth rogen, steve carrell or some shit. It doesn't really matter) and befriends them & starts to greatly interfere with his personal life...blah blah" What do you got?
jackie chan and many action stars e.g. jason statham stifler from american pie jim carrey superbad cast clint eastwood so many to name...many actors in comedy and action genres.
Danny Trejo-thug,criminal,ex con Ben Stiller-neurotic male Will Smith-smartass black dude Morgan Freeman-wise black dude Samuel L. jackson-BAMF every role
With a few exceptions, nearly every actor. Most actors have a very broad range, but throughout their career are only given the opportunity to show a small percentage of it. That's often why with high profile TV or movie actors you may feel like you are watching them portray the same character over and over again. This is a by-product of the business. How many times has Adam Sandler played the same obscene clown in recent memory? But I guarantee you he can do much more than that (and we see glimpses of it in Funny People and Punch Drunk Love.)
Jason Statham - Bad acting cockney Danny Dyer - Bad acting essex boy Contrary to most actors I don't think Jason Statham can do any other character, same as Danny
This also has to do with actors who play out of personality versus imagination. The god-awful piece of crap Two-and-a-Half Men is a great example. Charlie Sheen appears to approach the character playing very much out of his own personality and behaves similarly to how you might expect that actor to behave in his real life. Jon Cryer plays his character very much out of imagination (i.e. you would not expect Mr. Cryer to behave like his character on the show in his real personal life.)
Jason Statham is probably the most typecasted actor of all time. Every movie he makes is a carbon copy of the previous. I aint complaining tho, I luv em.
At least Will Smith got to lock lips with the goddess Charlize Theron. She was a milf in that movie. Megan Fox, sexy young lady Lyn Collings, damsel in distress Jennifer Aniston, hot older woman from next door who so happens to be kinda funny Noomi Rapace, girl who is weak, and gets into ton of shet, but some way manages to weasel her way out, and be the last one standing.
A character actor tends to get more comic work playing characters who may behave unrealistically or outrageously (Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie in the Family Vacation movies is a great example of this.) Typecasting can occur in any genre, any style--for example, Jimmy Smits' major roles on television have been serious and realistic, but he's played a similar character several times.
A character actor makes a certain type or types interesting, whereas a typecast actor has been relegated to a certain type or types against his or her own desire. Gary Oldman is a great character actor who was typecast as a villain in the 90s.
